Report: Amazon prepping Android app market

Lydia Leavitt, 2nd March 2011

The world’s largest online retailer, Amazon.com, is reportedly planning to launch an app market that will sell Android-based software.

Amazon hopes to tap into the growing demand for games, business and entertainment apps by creating an intuitive marketplace that makes it easy for customers to download Android apps.

Unsuprisingly, the online retailer plans to follow the Google model by keeping 30 percent while giving 70 percent of proceeds to developers.

The apps market was valued at $14.3 billion last year and is estimated to gain value to reach $40 billion by 2014.

The market is so hot right now, around 30 different brands are currently creating apps stores to tap into some of the profits.

With the same apps available everywhere, the only thing that can really set a store apart is its ease of use.

Google’s Android Marketplace has been criticized for being somewhat clunky, which is why so many other competitors are hoping to invade the space and gain popularity among Android fans.

"There is a huge volume of apps out there,” said Aaron Rubenson, the man overseeing the app store project.

"The challenge that creates for the Android ecosystem is it can be hard to find the products that are relevant to you. We’ve spent years developing an e-commerce platform that helps customers find relevant products amidst a massive selection."

There is no word yet when the Amazon app store will officially open, but the plan is to make the app store download simple on a phone or tablet - initially in the United States.

Users will also be able to buy apps through Amazon.com’s one-click option so manually entering a credit card each time is not required.